The six inductees who make up the sixth IndustryWeek Manufacturing Hall of Fame class are an impressive group.
They fall neatly into two categories: four CEOs, two inventors.
And the products their companies create represent a broad swath of American manufacturing.
Automobiles. Automotive repair tools. Metal-cutting tools. Chemicals. Computers. 3-D printing.
Without further ado, here is our 2014 Manufacturing Hall of Fame class:
►Carlos Cardoso, whose life story epitomizes the American Dream and whose career has been driven by his fervent advocacy of the U.S. manufacturing industry.
►Carl Deckard, whose invention of selective laser sintering cements his status as one of the founding fathers of 3-D printing.
►Carlos Ghosn, the French-Lebanese-Brazilian CEO whose resurrection of Renault earned him the colorful alias "Le Cost Killer."
►Andrew Liveris, who transformed Dow Chemical by changing its focus from commoditization-susceptible chemicals to high-growth specialty products.
►Nick Pinchuk, the charismatic leader of Snap-on, who deems manufacturing so central to our country's DNA that he refers to it as our "national calling."
►Steve Wozniak, "The Wizard of Woz," who single-handedly designed the Apple I and Apple II computers.
Like we said: an impressive group. Read about these world-class leaders in the pages that follow, and see how lucky we are that they chose this industry to devote their work lives to.
